Editing Star Trek: First Contact (section)

==Plot==
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In the 24th century, Captain [[Jean-Luc Picard]] awakens from a nightmare in which he relives his assimilation by the cybernetic [[Borg]] [[The Best of Both Worlds (Star Trek: The Next Generation)|six years earlier]]. He is contacted by [[Starfleet]], who inform him of a new Borg threat against Earth. Picard's orders are for his ship, {{USS|Enterprise|NCC-1701-E|6}}, to patrol the [[Romulan Neutral Zone|Neutral Zone]] in case of [[Romulan]] aggression; Starfleet is worried that Picard is too emotionally involved with the Borg to join the fight.

Learning the fleet is losing the battle, the ''Enterprise'' crew disobeys orders and heads for Earth, where a single Borg Cube ship holds its own against a group of Starfleet vessels. ''Enterprise'' arrives in time to assist the crew of {{USS|Defiant||6}} and its commander, the [[Klingon]] [[Worf]]. Picard takes control of the fleet and directs the surviving ships to concentrate their firepower on a seemingly unimportant point on the Borg ship.{{sfn|Nemecek|2003|p=326}} The Cube launches a smaller spherical ship towards Earth before being destroyed. ''Enterprise'' pursues the sphere into a temporal vortex. As the sphere disappears, ''Enterprise'' discovers Earth has been altered—Borg now populates it. Realizing the Borg have used [[time travel]] to change the past, ''Enterprise'' follows the sphere through the vortex.<ref name="startrek-synopsis">{{cite web|url=https://www.startrek.com/database_article/star-trek-first-contact|title=Star Trek: First Contact Synopsis|website=StarTrek.com|publisher=CBS Entertainment|access-date=August 21, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190906092430/https://www.startrek.com/database_article/star-trek-first-contact|archive-date=September 6, 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref>

''Enterprise'' arrives hundreds of years in the past on April 4, 2063, the day before the historic [[warp drive]] flight that leads to humanity's [[First contact (science fiction)|first encounter]] with alien life. The crew surmise that the Borg are trying to prevent first contact and assimilate humanity while the planet is recovering from [[World War III (Star Trek)|World War III]]. After destroying the Borg sphere, an away team transports down to [[Zefram Cochrane]]'s warp ship, ''Phoenix'', in [[Bozeman, Montana]]. Picard has Cochrane's assistant Lily Sloane sent back to the Enterprise for medical attention. The captain returns to the ship and leaves Commander [[William T. Riker]] on Earth to make sure ''Phoenix''{{'}}s flight proceeds as planned.{{sfn|Nemecek|2003|p=327}} While in the future Cochrane is seen as a hero, in reality he built the ''Phoenix'' for financial gain and is reluctant to be the historic figure the crew describes.<ref name="startrek-synopsis"/>

A group of Borg invade ''Enterprise''{{'}}s lower decks, assimilating some of the crew and modifying the ship. Picard and a team attempt to reach engineering to disable the Borg with a corrosive gas, but are forced back; the android [[Data (Star Trek)|Data]] is captured in the melee. A frightened Lily corners Picard with a weapon, but he gains her trust. The two escape the Borg-infested area of the ship by creating a diversion in the [[holodeck]].{{sfn|Nemecek|2003|p=327}} Picard, Worf, and the ship's navigator, Lieutenant Hawk, travel outside the ship in space suits to stop the Borg from using the [[deflector dish|navigational deflector]] to call for reinforcements, but Hawk is assimilated in the process. As the Borg assimilate more decks, Worf suggests destroying the ship, but Picard angrily calls him a coward. Lily confronts the captain and makes him realize he is acting irrationally because of his past with the Borg. Picard apologizes to Worf and orders the activation of the ship's self-destruct and evacuation of the crew to escape pods, while he stays behind to rescue Data.{{sfn|Nemecek|2003|p=328}}

As Cochrane, Riker, and engineer [[Geordi La Forge]] prepare to activate the warp drive on ''Phoenix'', Picard discovers that the [[Borg Queen]] has grafted human skin onto Data, giving him the sensation of touch he has long desired so that she can obtain the android's encryption codes to the ''Enterprise'' computer. Although Picard offers himself to the Borg in exchange for Data's freedom, Data refuses to leave, deactivates the self-destruct, and fires torpedoes at ''Phoenix''. At the last moment, the torpedoes miss, and the Queen realizes Data deceived her.{{sfn|Nemecek|2003|p=328}} The android ruptures a coolant tank, and the corrosive vapor eats away the biological components of the Borg and Data's new skin.

With the Borg threat neutralized, Cochrane completes his warp flight.<ref name="startrek-synopsis"/> Later that night, the crew watches from a distance as an alien [[Vulcan (Star Trek)|Vulcan]] ship, attracted by the ''Phoenix'' warp test, lands on Earth. Cochrane greets the aliens. Having ensured the correction of the timeline, Picard bids Lily farewell, and the ''Enterprise'' crew slips away and returns to the 24th century.<ref name="startrek-synopsis"/>